Chapter 230 — Telling Her

At the main gate, Chen Yanzhou and Sulan ran into Dou Huaiying, who had just returned from outside.

He looked at Chen Yanzhou, who was holding the account books, with considerable surprise, and could not help raising his head to glance at the sky.

In the azure sky hung a crescent moon, sparsely dotted about with a few stars.

Chen Yanzhou hastily explained, "The young lady suddenly gave orders that I was to sort out all the accounts for the past six months. I have been busy at it until just now, and have only come to report back to her..."

Dou Huaiying nodded, patted Chen Yanzhou on the shoulder, and praised him somewhat thickly: "Very good! Very good! Serve the Fourth Young Lady well, and I won't treat you badly!" He looked thoroughly satisfied.

Sulan muttered under her breath.

At whose house had the Seventh Master been drinking this time? He came back spouting drunken nonsense. If they had waited for the Seventh Master to show up and praise them, they would have long since been left to drink the north wind.

Chen Yanzhou thanked him respectfully, and together with Gaosheng, who had come out to meet them, he helped Dou Huaiying back to his room. Only then did he follow Sulan to the flower hall.

Dou Yan had already received word, and was waiting for Chen Yanzhou in the flower hall, fully dressed.

Sulan served tea and refreshments, then quietly withdrew and kept watch outside the door.

Chen Yanzhou cupped his hands in apology and said, "I have always felt too ashamed to face my old friends from home. When I did occasionally correspond with friends from the past, it was only because they had requests of me. Now that I am in my eighties, I have come to conduct myself with a little more clarity than before. These past two days I went to call on some old friends, and I have made the Fourth Young Lady worry."

Dou Yan was not the sort to demand that her subordinates report every last thing to her. She smiled and asked him about his visits to his friends, and then the two of them turned to the matter at hand.

"There was a purpose in my going to see my old friends this time," Chen Yanzhou said after a moment's thought. "The Ying Duke's household is a place of shifting winds and treacherous currents—surely the young lady can see that. In the past, these things had little to do with us. Even if changes came, the young lady's life was not at stake. But now it is different. The young lady is betrothed to the heir, and we will be settling in the capital. Some things must be prepared for in advance. We must make our plans early; we cannot rely entirely on the heir." He thought of how close Dou Yan and Song Yan were, and of how Song Yan meant what he said and acted with ruthless decisiveness, and he worried that Dou Chi might not judge Song Yan fairly. He paused, then explained, "We all know the heir's character and nature. But there are some things that even the heir may be powerless to do anything about, and then we would be at a disadvantage. So what I mean is this: on the one hand, we must cultivate some friends—the officials who have dealings with Cui Min, for instance, and my old acquaintances from the past. If anything changes in the Ying Duke's household, we will have a fallback, a card to play. Even if we cannot help the heir, we can at least preserve the young lady's life. We must not let her be caught up in it!"

Dou Yan was utterly astonished.

.

"So then—you are in favor of my marrying into that family?" she asked Chen Yanzhou.

Chen Yanzhou answered tactfully: "The heir may be overbearing, but there are several advantages to the young lady marrying him. First, the name of the Ying Duke's household carries weight enough. When you refused the Ji family's marriage proposal, the Fifth Master will likely have to spend great effort to mend relations with the Ji family. The people of the East Dou will say nothing openly, but resentment will remain in their hearts. If you stay at home, we will certainly have to match wits and courage against the East Dou hereafter, and the outcome is uncertain. But if you marry into the Ying Duke's household, then no matter how displeased the East Dou may be, with the great umbrella of the Ying Duke's household over you, they will have no choice but to bury the hatchet with you. The rift with the East Dou can be healed without the slightest effort, and the East Dou, for the sake of its own interests, will always treat you with respect. That may well turn out to be a good thing for you. Second, the heir and we know each other through and through. Once the young lady marries him, you need not fear being suppressed by anyone, and even if you should choose to live in separate quarters, the heir would hardly consider it shocking. Third, the heir can help you recover the dowry held under your name. We can train our own chief stewards, and in ten years at most we can break free of the Dou family." Here his face lit up with delight, and his voice swelled with pride. "Young lady, we will no longer have to live at the mercy of the Dou clan!"

How could Dou Yan not know it?

But they had to survive the palace coup four years hence!

The Ying Duke's household had to stand firm!

Yet she could not very well tell Chen Yanzhou about something that had not yet come to pass.

Dou Yan thought for a moment, then probed: "When the nest is overturned, how can any egg remain whole? The great noble houses rely mostly on imperial favor—thunderbolts and sweet rain alike come unforeseeable. To marry into the Ying Duke's household is to tie oneself to it. If the Ying Duke's household should fall as the Ding Duke's household did, then no matter how much we scheme, I fear it would all be in vain. I am still a little uneasy at heart."

Chen Yanzhou said, "Does the young lady know what my other purpose was in going to see my old friends?" As he spoke, he smiled faintly. "I suspect the heir is not the Duke of Ying's own flesh and blood!"

"That's impossible!" Dou Yan cried out, knocking over the teacup at her hand.

The tea quickly dripped from the tabletop onto the bluestone tiles of the floor, making a pattering sound.

If Song Ke were Song Cen's own son, how could he, in his former life, have so righteously killed his father and slain his brothers?

Smiling, Chen Yanzhou helped Dou Yan set the teacup upright again, and said with a sly grin, "You see? If even you never thought of such a thing, how would the heir ever think of it? And yet the affairs of this world are often just that unexpected!"

Dou Chi had to admit that Chen Yanzhou's words made sense.

Her mind was reeling; she could not think.